Thanksgiving at OTB

On Thanksgiving I naturally went and did some off-track betting. I believe this is what most people do. For those of you not so familiar with OTBs – they are gaming worlds for adults where you go to place your bets if you can't get to the track

Awkward in finland

These two things felt slightly awkward during my recent visit to Finland:

I've gotten so used to leaving a tip at restaurants that I felt somewhat uncomfortable not leaving one.


The cover of the main newspaper is dedicated to advertising.

PJ

I thought I'd start posting every once in a while about my very favorite things in America. I have to say that I've fallen in love with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. (This jelly is what my English teacher would have called jam.) Amazingly enough these godly creations are practically unknown in Finland.

breakfast New York style

This breakfast place had the most extensive selection of bagels I've ever seen. I presume some of them are a little bit unorthodox.

breakfasst outside

This year's "breakfast at the terrace" season has been officially opened! A full hour of newspaper reading was pushing it a bit, I left the spot shivering (the umbrellas were rather unnecessary, it was overcast) but I'll try to take the best out of these moderately warm days - before it actually gets hot.

A day at the Racetrack

Today I bring you special coverage from the Belmont horse racing track, NY city, where my father-in-law (everybody calls him Sunny because his always on such a good mood) kindly took me.

The day started with a hearty breakfast and some research on the racing paper.



The parking lot at the track is so big that you take a bus from your car to the entrance.


Sunny's whole posse was already waiting at the table. Although we were at the track we were in fact following "simulcasting" from other tracks on a little screen.


I got lucky right on the second race of the day - very lucky.


The food was plentiful.




Sunny kept his cool the whole day. Winning or loosing - you couldn't tell the difference on his face. Some people at the other tables were quite a bit rowdier.


Needless to say: betting on horses didn't turn out to be an ingenious way for making money.

Entering a Restaurant

One of the New Yorkers' favorite activities is to wait on line in front of restaurants. I my self just gave it a try last Saturday morning. Nearly 1.5 hours of waiting. It was fun in the company of my wife and two nice visitors from Finland. I can see my self getting addicted to waiting on line - like so many in New York.

One little detail related to this experience: New York restaurants often have these temporary looking steel-and-tarp structures by their entrances to help keep heat in (or out, in the summer time). Not very elegant but somehow I like them.

Super Bowl

Giants won the Super Bowl. Yahoo!

I got prepared to the big game by visiting the MET. As this Mexican figure from 100 B.C. - A.D. 300 demonstrates the tradition of playing ball in this region goes way back in time. (Note: just like in FOOTball around here, the players carried the ball in their HANDs.)



There was plenty of great food available during the game (thank you very much S&R!). The 3-foot hero sandwich was just about the most American thing I've seen so far.

More Thanksgiving

I've still been preoccupied with the cartoon competition.

The upcoming election sure is a big talk around here.

A Woman with a Hat

Yesterday, in a small theater/restaurant there was a woman with one of those hats - a kippah or yarmulka - usually only worn by religious jewish men. This website sees women wearing kippot (plural for kippah) as a "push for equality between the sexes in the practice of Judaism".

Ceiling Panels

Every single store, cafe, bar, restaurant and gas station around here has the same kind of acoustic paneling on their ceiling. (Note that I have carefully documented this already before)

Packaging

One of the most ecological features of American groceries is the size of packaging. Everything is super-sized which means that for each pound of packaged food relatively little material is used in packaging (realtively meaning that if the same type of packages were smaller there would be even more wasted material).
That was at least how it used to be but now it seems that the trend is mini-size. Weight gaining (or loosing) concious consumers want their snacks in small packages containing just the suitable amount of calories for a single doze. Hence, for example potato chip companies gain multiplied profits - and create multiplied amounts of packaging material.

I think I'm living in America, pretty close to New York city: my toaster has a special setting for bagels. I have no idea what it does and haven't dared to try it yet.

Pizza & Parking

burgers

It is very difficult to learn that burger, in American, can mean both a steak within two pieces of bread and the steak on its own. A mushroom burger means (at least at the Metro Diner) a steak and some mushrooms placed within a roll. I got a veggie burger instead, which was vegetarian to my great delight.

Scarsdale Metro Rest & Diner, 878 Scarsdale Ave, Scarsdale, NY

afternoon sushi

Sushi a-go-go, 1900 Broadway, New York

breakfast at pantry

Pantry, 2 Mechanic St, New Haven